Examples:

Hikaru's full name is Azuma Hikaru, or "light of the East," and upon hearing this name, his new father Masato's first hope was that Hikaru would grow up to climb the corporate ladder. Which... he most likely won't do.

Miyu means "beautiful feather", but she acts far less delicate than her name would suggest, as does the fifth-grade kendo champ Misaki, whose name means "beautiful blossoms."

The given name of Nozomu Itoshiki means hope, which is ironic in light of his deeply pessimistic personality. It ends up becoming a Meaningful Name though in that due to a quirk in Japanese, the way his name is spelled in a western way (left to right rather than up to down) leads it to being misread as Zetsubou, meaning "Despair" or "Hopeless".

On the opposite side his brother Mikoto's name is written with the Kanji for 'Life', a Meaningful Name given he's a doctor by trade. When added to his family name in the same way, it becomes the Ironic Name Zetsume, meaning "Death".

Baraggan Louisenbairn, the Segunda Espada, has a name inspired by a Mexican architect, Luis Barragán. Despite the fact that Las Noches (Barragan's base of operations) didn't even have walls or a roof when Sousuke Aizen showed up to take control.

Kaname Tosen named the Proto-Arrancar White even though its body is pitch black. Aizen commented on the irony.

Not as ironic it seems since Tosen is blind he wouldn't know that White was colored black. That said I don't think a blind person should name things after colors.

The Severing Crime Edge: Iwai's name means celebration. However, as she points out, she has nothing to celebrate due to her curse and the various dangers in her life.

"Massacre Soldier" Killer from One Piece seems to have an ironic name (if it's his real name, of course) and epitaph. Among all the Eleven Supernovas/ Worst Generation, he's the one of the Only Sane Man and anything but Ax-Crazy. He's the one who has to keep his captain, Eustass Kid, calm.

A Certain Magical Index: Ayu Mitsuari's last name actually fits (Mitsuari means "honeypot ant" and that is her Animal Motif), but Ayu means "love" and "joy" while she is a very bitter and angry person.

There's a relatively minor character named "Arisugawa Kintarou" in Maria-sama ga Miteru. Kintarou is named after a famous folklore hero renown for his strength and masculinity. Kintarou is a transsexualGirly Girl who prefers going by "Alice".

Ano Kiss has "Moe", a Comically Serious girl with a blunt character, who may or may not stalk her girlfriend as a hobby. Adding to the irony, said girlfriend Mizuki, whom people see as the Tomboy of the two, is far more prone to exhibit typically moe behaviour (shyness, blushing, insecurity, etc.)

In Komori-san wa Kotowarenai! the first syllable of Komori and Ootani's names mean "small" and "large" respectively, an irony that they point out when talking to each other for the first time (Komori is six feet tall and Ootani is really short). They jokingly refer to each other as Oomori and Kotani.

Durarara!! has Shizuo Heiwajima whose name means "quiet hero/peaceful island". Shizuo is a Hot-Blooded man with Hair-Trigger Temper who can barely spend a day without getting into a violent fight — especially if Izaya is involved.

In Y: The Last Man the main character, Yorick, was named for the Shakespearean Posthumous Character of the same name and his most interesting trait is that he doesn't die. Similarly his sister Hero spends a lot of time as The Atoner for a good reason...

Richmond Valentine from Kingsman: The Secret Service. "Valentine" is widely known as the holiday to offer love towards your fellow man. On the other hand, this Valentine has nothing but contempt for humanity and is engineering a worldwide Hate Plague.

The Fifth Element: "Jean-Baptiste" and "Emmanuel" are a pair of given names rich in Christian symbolism. So they're given to Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg, an insane and callous weapons magnate with a fetish for "creative" destruction.

In Room, while Ma's name was never revealed in the book, in the movie, it was revealed to be Joy.

In The Wind (1928): What would you name a town in the middle of a bone-dry desert that is afflicted by neverending, punishing winds? "Sweet Water", of course.

In Die Hard, the terrorists arrive in a truck labeled "Pacific Courier" which translates to "Bringer of Peace".

Tango from Tango & Cash has made a small fortune playing the stock market. Thus, he's wealthier than his partner, Cash.

The Carters from Lords and Ladies: the daughters, as is traditional, are all named after virtues (Hope, Patience, Chastity), but then Mr and Mrs Carter got a bit confused and named all the sons after vices (Bestiality, Covetousness, Anger). None of the children live up to their names.

Two of the Freys have names that are ironic in terms of who they are named for. The severely mentally retarded Aegon (generally known as Jinglebell because his Jerkass grandfather makes him act as a jester) is named after a great military leader and ruler. Similarly, Rhaegar Frey, a slimy and totally mediocre man, is named after a Pretty BoyKnight in Shining Armor who was both a sensitive intellectual and a military genius.

In-universe, "Spotted Pate" is a folklore character who, while dim-witted, was Born Lucky and always succeeds/makes nobles look ridiculous (basically the equivalent to Jack, Hans, etc. in our folklore). As a result, it is a popular name for Westerosi peasants. However, (perhaps because they are peasants) most of the Pates in-story are singularly unlucky:

At one point, the outlaw Tom O'Sevens is listing his grievances against the Lannisters, and he names at least five Pates he knew whose deaths he blames on them, including his cousin Ser Pate who was killed in a tourney by Gregor Clegane.

Another Pate is the royal whipping boy and gets flogged for bad deeds by the Princes (or just when Cersei wants to teach her son a lesson).

Pate of Oldtown was murdered and had his identity stolen by a shape-shifting assassin.

The Brave Companions is a mercenary band of criminals, psychos and exiles from across the narrow sea. Despite their title, they aren't particularly renowned for bravery being mostly cowards that sides for whoever is winning at the moment and are better at hurting innocents than being fighting. They are better known for other nicknames such as "Bloody Mummers" or "Footman", but don't dare to call them that to their faces if you want to keep your limbs.

Varsian the Immortal from Lacuna dies moments after introducing himself.

In Harry Potter, Amycus Carrow is one of Voldemort's Death Eaters, but his name is similar to the Latin word amicus which means friend. (This is, however, coincidental, as the name is derived from the Greek Amykos.)

In Garry Kilworth's House Of Tribes, every single member of the mouse tribe "Invisibles" has that kind of a name; Hearallthings (deaf), Goingdownfast (an excellent swimmer), Ferocious (the meekest one), etc.

The eponymous character of the Koziolek Matolek series has a name that means literally "silly billy-goat". However, he isn't really stupid, and the narrative even notes several times how smart and clever he is.

Felix Castor: What do you call a character who accidentally killed his own little sister a second time, accidentally made his best friend's Demonic Possession permanent (and had to do it a second time to save the world) and is in unrequited love with a lesbian succubus? If you're Mike Carey, you name him Felix ("lucky") and, for good measure, name the poor bastard with the chronic Demonic Possession Rafael.

Another Agatha Christie example is one half of spy duo Tommy and Tuppence; Tuppence's real name is Prudence, but she is the more hot-headed and impetuous of the two, very rarely ever acting with any.

One of the protagonists of Doctrine of Labyrinths is named Felix, as in "lucky," but his misfortunes include Mind Rape, slavery, forced prostitution, physical torture, temporary insanity, incarceration in a dungeon and a Bedlam House,frame-ups for murder and treason, exile, and the horrible deaths of various people close to him.

In Everworld, Jalil at one point mentions that his name is Hindi for "godlike," and Lampshades how odd that is for an African-American atheist. Also, the queen of the Amazons is named Pretty Little Flower.

The short fantasy comedy Dragon In Distress has Sir George, who is trying to rescue his dragon. The irony comes from his namesake: St. George (Famed for being a dragonslayer.).

In Isaac Asimov'sRobot novels, the "Spacers" are humans from the fifty interstellar colony worlds. While the Spacer name is used by both people from Earth and the Spacers themselves, the Spacer Worlds are so utopian in terms of wealth and standard of living, and the Spacers themselves Long Lived and spoiled by luxury supported by armies of robot servants, that they have become chronically risk-averse, and the vast majority of them never actually leave the planets that they are born on to engage in space travel.

Patience, in Dinoverse. Impatience isn't her primary personality trait, but it's among them.

In one of the Queens Thief books, Attolia and Eddis have a wry conversation about their ill-fitting birth names. Irene and Helen, respectively—one means peace, one is the woman whose face launched a thousand ships, and they know they don't fit the bill.

The name Petal from Warrior Cats is usually for a soft-spoken and kind she-cat. But as for Petal from Dawn Of The Clans...as Thunder says: "Which cat named her 'Petal'? There's nothing soft about her!" And the character Quick Water hates water, much to the amusement of Turtle Tail.

The Greater Good: Anyone who knows the word meaning would expect a planet named Fecundia to be a bountiful agri-world. Instead, it's a heavily polluted note to the point where tithe workers are advised to get life-support augmetics so they'll last longer Forge World.

In the Jacob's Ladder Trilogy, the various AIs are named after angels. Samael, whose name means "Poison of God", holds the role of Angel of Life Support.

In Nocturne, it's actually lampshaded how poorly the flamboyant and melodramatic Modesty Brabazon's name fits her.

The Hunger Games: The Quarter Quell's name is this, as the quell means "to subdue something", which in the case of the 3rd Quarter Quell, means "subdue this rebellion that's going on right under our noses". The quell ends in La Résistance gaining more firepower and their main target a reason to gun for the President's head.

The show seems to love doing this. You'd think that characters with names like Angel, Faith, Harmony and Glory would be heroic characters, but they're all villains. While Angel does pull a Heel–Face Turn eventually, he's still a vampire and becomes more of an Anti-Hero than a shining example of heroism. Faith also does a Heel–Face Turn thanks to Angel. Harmony eventually becomes Angel's secretary. She's still evil, just not very good at it. Of the four, Glory is the only really purely evil one (and she's at least Faux Affably Evil).

It should be noted that Angel specifically picked his name to be ironic (his real name is Liam): he is the "vampire with the angelic face." His evil side, when it resurfaces, is referred to with the much more intimidating name of "Angelus."

Drop the Dead Donkey has Gus Hedges' sarcastic, cynical, caustic, occasionally violent PA, who scares most of her colleagues - including the ones who've reported from warzones. Her name; Joy Merryweather.

The BBC show Merlin (2008) had a villain called Valiant, who was using underhanded tactics to cheat in a tournament.

The Dukes of Hazzard: Starting around season 3, Sheriff Rosco started a K-9 unit by acquiring Flash. Flash is a lazy Basset Hound who does nothing but loaf around, receive Rosco's affections, and occasionally bark at Boss Hogg.

Horatio Hornblower: Midshipman Clayton observes that there never has been a man more wrongly named than Captain Keene. He's an old and tired gentleman who keeps coughing and breathing heavily, barely managing to captain his ship. However, at least he can be an entertaining Deadpan Snarker, and surprisingly, he doesn't die of his illness and old age.

The Bible: Nebuchadnezzar sees the humor in sacking and burning Jerusalem.

Nebuchadnezzar:(to his charioteer) You know what "Jerusalem" means? "City of peace!" (both laugh)

On House of Anubis it seems that Joy's name will never fit her life, considering she was kidnapped, the boy she loved for a while rejected her constantly and rather harshly, her friends all seemed to like Nina more, and when she finally fell in love again it was ripped away from her at the end. No wonder her nickname is Joyless...

In the final episode of The Nanny, C.C. Babcock's full name was revealed to be Chastity Claire, a very delicate and feminine name that contrasted sharply with the abrasive Ice Queen C.C. When the name was revealed, everybody in the room (including a woman in the middle of delivering a baby) all looked at her completely shocked.

You've walked past me so many times, all you good men of charity, never once asking my name.

(A minute later, after her Cybermen started killing the lords attending the funeral)

It's funny, now I think of it, but in all these years not one of you has asked my first name. It's Mercy.

Mike Stoker, both the character on Emergency! and the Real Life firefighter who played him. Historically, stokers kept fires burning in places like metal foundries and steamships. Mike, however, put them out.

Charming in Sons of Anarchy. It's a small town with a large history of gang violence.

Prudence from One Big Happy is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl who generally acts on impulse, likes to have fun and is not adverse to going around the house naked. In short, the complete opposite of what she's named after.

One episode of C Hi Ps revolved around a new communications system and a new dispatcher. However, said dispatcher suffers from speaking issues and has a grating voice. Getraer later reveals her name is Kathy Lark and comments on the irony.

Meta-example: The Goldbergs were confirmed to be Jewish in season three. This includes Barry who's played by Troy Gentile.

The title character of Doctor Syn ("The Scarecrow"). An American fugitive who's sent to him for sanctuary is taken aback on being told that the local vicar is named Syn, but it is (as Walt Disney makes sure to point out in one intro) spelled with a y, not an i.

Lamb Of God quite frankly doesn't sound anything like the bunch of choir boys you'd expect. In fact, their previous band name, Burn the Priest, is actually much more fitting to the band's sound.

The country group Lady Antebellum is two-thirds male and obviously all of them were born after 1860.

OMC stands for Otara Millionaire's Club. Otara is an economically depressed area of Auckland which is unlikely to have many millionaires. The band members picked this name out of self-deprecating irony, assuming that their band would only ever be well-known locally, only to have a worldwide runaway hit in their single "How Bizarre," leading to...well, perhaps not millions of dollars, but certainly more than a few hefty paychecks.

More than half of Superchic[k] is male, including both the secondary vocalist and founder.

John Balance, co-founder of Coil, died after falling off of a balcony.

Professional Wrestling

BLKOUT was a Power Stable that existed in several promotions at the same time. The Chikara branch in particular was almost entirely made up of white men.

After Raven took advantage of CM Punk's reluctance to fight women by having Trinity beat him up, CM Punk introduced Ring of Honor to the newest member of the Second City Saints, Lucy, Lucy Furr.

Lucha Internacional Femenil tends of feature a larger number of established native stars than its older counterpart, Lucha Libre Femenil, which was forced to use rookies and foreigners early on and embraced the identity it gained for doing so, even after booking superstars such as the Apaches and Hamadas.

On an episode of This American Life, Sarah Vowell goes to "Goth school" and has to pick her Goth name—something grim and depressing. She picks "Becky" (which, to her, has grim connotations of high school proms and homecoming dances). The teachers are very impressed.

In the book of Ruth, Naomi (whose name means "pleasant") lampshades her ironic name when she returns to Israel, telling the women of her hometown to call her "Mara" ("bitter") because her life has been anything but pleasant up until that point.

Absalom's name combines the words for "father" and "peace." He rebelled against his father, King David, and caused a civil war.

"Abimelech" means "my father is king." One bearer was the son of Gideon, a hero who was Offered the Crown but refused it, although that didn't stop Abimelech from trying to take over the country himself.

Xion's name is pronounced "shion". The shion flower represents "remembrance" and is used as a gift to say "I won't forget you." She suffered a Ret Gone. However, Sora and the others gradually start remembering her again and it is implied Sora will be able to bring her back.

The title characters of Tiny and Big are named in this manner; Tiny's of average height, while Big is a pipsqueak.

One of the "signature hero" NPCs in RuneScape is named Xenia, which refers to the Greek tradition of Sacred Hospitality. The character Xenia is a duplicitous Trickster Mentor who deliberately throws strangers into peril just to see what they do.

In Dawn of War Retribution, an ork battlewagon is fought at one point. Now a battlewagon is a blasphemy against the laws of physics and engineering, looks like the unholy offspring of a road train and a tank, has more guns than a Crazy Survivalist and more spikes than a Tin Tyrant. The name of this monstrosity? Daisy.

In Dead Rising 3, Kenny Dermot is a psychopath who is envious of the hero. Dermot means "free of envy".

Super Mario RPG features Culex, a ferocious Bonus Boss who is easily the most difficult enemy in the game. His name means "mosquito" in Latin.

The Prophet of Truth's entire base of power stems from a lie which could break the Covenant apart and has caused billions of deaths, alien and human.

The Prophet of Regret is far too self-serving and bloodthirsty to regret anything. His former title, Vice Minister of Tranquility, completely contrasts that he's about as confrontational as the Elites/Sangheili he pals around with, to a level unique among San'Shyuum.

The Prophet of Inner Conviction from Halo: Broken Circle, one of the few morally outstanding Prophets given focus, holds doubts regarding his religion from studying "sacred" relics, i.e. advanced electronics and technology.

A meta-example is Final Fantasy. It was originally named because Squaresoft was in financial trouble and the president decided to try throwing together one last game before he retired. The game was an unexpected Breakthrough Hit, and became a franchise spanning over a dozen games, not counting the many, many spin-offs.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations has a restaurant called Tries Bien, which means "very good". The quality of the food and the coffee served there is anything BUT good, which is why the place is in so much debt. Godot, a heavy coffee drinker, says that the coffee served at the restaurant is good, if only for the experience.

Web Animation

In RWBY, Neptune is apparently afraid of large bodies of water. This is lampshaded in RWBY Chibi.

Tiffany "Susan" Pompoms of El Goonish Shive always goes by her middle name, because she considers her actual first- and last-name to be too "perky and upbeat" for her cynical, sardonic personality. (Ironically, it's been made quite clear that if it wasn't for ONE traumatic childhood event, she would've wound up fitting her name just perfectly.)

At least three Spin-Offspring characters: Opal Beifong, who's an airbender (although she plays with the trope in that the gemstone for which she's named is sometimes associated with the element of air); her brother Huan (meaning: "cheery"), who's a goth; and Fire Lord Izumi (meaning: wellspring).

Star Wars Rebels: The Greek Goddess Hera was Zeus's wife and patron of marriage, but she's also known for her vengeful nature, hunting Zeus's illegitimate children, and being an Abusive Parent for Hephaestus. Considering this, it's quite ironic that Hera Syndulla, the caring Team Mom of this series, is named after her.

Happens momentarily in The Transformers. Cliffjumper is the hot-headed Leeroy Jenkins of the Autobots who would gladly leap off a cliff to engage the Decepticons. Amusingly, the one time that the Autobots are called on to jump up a cliff, he's the only one who can't make the jump.

Zesty Gourmand from "Spice Up Your Life!" is an influential food critic who's forced every restaurant in Canterlot's Restaurant Row to serve what she considers to be ideal cuisine: bland and almost flavorless (not at all "zesty") and in tiny portions (not at all what a "gourmand" would want to eat).

Freakonomics contains the examples of Winner Lane, whose most noted achievement was his criminal record and subsequent prison time, and Loser Lane, his brother, who ended up becoming much more successful (and now goes by "Lou").

In July of 1839, a group of kidnapped, enslaved Africans took control of their kidnappers's vessel. They were later captured off the coast of Long Island, and court proceedings were undertaken to determine their fate (either prosecuted for murder, returned to slavery or allowed back to Africa). Thanks to a Supreme Court ruling, the Africans were allowed to return home. The name of the slave ship? La Amistad, which means "Friendship" in Spanish.

An American destroyer captain led the destroyer charge that scored a number of torpedo hits at Surigao Strait during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. His name was Coward.

Similarly, John Coward was the first officer of British Airways Flight 38 and was in control of the plane when it lost power. Together with the other pilots he managed to get it down without any casualties. Afterwards, one newspaper had the headline "Coward in name only."

Romulus Augustulus, the last Western Roman Emperor, had the names of the legendary founder of Rome and the first Roman Emperor. Originally called Romulus Augustus, the -ulus was added, making the name "Little Augustus".

Comedian Adam Hills cites a real life example in his shows: he goes on a rant about irony and how many people don't understand it. After one such show, a woman comes up to him and informs him that she is diabetic. Her name is Candy.

One of the officers (and prime fall guy) responsible for the Rodney King beating is named Stacey Koon (for the blissfully unaware, 'Coon' is a highly derogatory term for a black person, and the Rodney King beating was probably racially motivated).

Bill Hicks: So this guy, officer Koon... Is life too fucking weird, or what?

Similarly, the last racist anthropologist to be taken seriously was named Carleton Coon.

Lance Armstrong, a champion cyclist, a sport generally associated with leg strength (although like any sport that's only part of the equation).

From the NFL, retired New England Patriot Patrick Pass may very well have had the best quarterback name in history. Too bad he was a running back.

The symbol of Christianity is the cross. David Cross, on the other hand, is an atheist who was born Jewish.

GG Allin's birth name is Jesus Christ Allins. He grew up to become the most profane, obscene, transgressive, offensive, and infamous punk rocker of his day.

Noted atheist (or as he would put it, "anti-theist") Christopher Hitchens first name means "Christ-bearer".

Andrea. Funny thing is, despite it sounding like a name for women, the original meaning comes from the Greek root of "man". Triples as an Unfortunate Name and Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle if a female with that name travels to Greece, Italy, or Albania, as it will provoke only laughter.

James M. Fail was a successful businessman from Alabama. Despite his extensive philanthropy, he was reluctant to put his name on anything, until he got the opportunity to name the visitor's locker room inside the University of Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium.

French marshal Georges Mouton, count of Lobau (1770-1838), considered one of Napoleon's bravest generals. Mouton is French for "sheep", but as Napoleon said after a battle in 1809: "Mon Mouton est un lion" — "My Sheep is a lion".

The Pacific Ocean. "Pacific" means "Peaceful". Now consider how many naval battles took place in the ocean during World War II, including several contenders for largest naval battle in history. Also consider that the Ring of Fire, and earthquake and volcanic hotspot, encircles this ocean.

Tillikum is the name of the killer whale that was involved in three deaths, two of which were at SeaWorld Florida. In Chinook, his name means "friend."

Kurt Tank was a German engineer responsible for the creation of several important aircraft for the German Luftwaffe later pressed into service at the advent of World War II. These aircraft included the famed Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter and Ta 190 interceptor, both which would become Cool Planes for the war.

Don Black...is a white supremacist. Not entirely out of place as his surname also means "evil".

Battlecruiser HMS Invincible, which exploded into smithereens in the Battle of Jutland due to a lucky hit to propellant magazine. Doubles with Harsher in Hindsight.

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